The Dating Game
by The-Fun-Rinoa
Summary: 4th chapter finally here! Should Quitsis accept her date with RAIJIN?! IS her relationship with Selphie and Irvine ruined forever? Plz R+R!
1. Default Chapter

Selphie's bright idea  
  
As Quitsis walked down the squeaky clean Balamb garden corridor, she wondered what the heck she was doing. Was this her? Why was she doing this? She stopped in her tracks. Maybe this had been a bad idea...She wasn't some common floozy who did things like this; she was a professor, intelligent and dignified. But her loneliness bounced back in to her heart, her mind was screaming for something, someone. She had been alone for so long. But still, was a dating agency really necessary?  
  
She looked in a nearby mirror, brushing back her silky hair and studying herself attentively. What was wrong with her? She wasn't fat, and supposedly not ugly. So why did every man she men toss her aside like a half-eaten hamburger? She sighed and continued walking; well it couldn't be that bad – what did she have to lose? But how likely was it she'd find a decent man? It was always losers who went to these dating agencies. Was she a loser? No- but………  
  
Quitsis Trepee had been having these arguments with herself for over a week now, ever since Selphie had announced the garden's new "dating agency". Ever since she and Irvine had got together she had been determined to bring the "lost souls" of the world together, and had been bullying her to come all week.  
  
Quitsis carried on down though corridor though- still undecided. She came to the door of the dating agency and stopped. What should she do? She stood pondering for a while, twiddling her thumbs. She was just about to walk away when the door jerked open and Selphie's cheery face appeared.  
  
"Quitsy!!!" She screamed excitedly, "You came! you came you came you came!"  
  
"Yeah." said Quitsis weakly.  
  
"Come in," said Selphie, we have so much to do!" Quitsis stepped in to find a rather shockingly decorated room. Huge pink hearts hung from the wall, red streamers from the ceiling. And there were masses of pink and red confetti strewn over the floor. The desks had been painted pink, and behind them sat Selphie's dating crew. There was Selphie and Irvine, Rinoa had appeared too. The person's appearance who startled her most was Squalls. She smiled at him, he obviously didn't want to be here, he was slumped over the desk gazing out of the window.  
  
She stepped in, unsure of this new environment, but once Rinoa saw her she felt right at home. She ran squealing up to her, bounding like Angeleno.  
  
"Hi!" she squeaked. "Oh, sit down here in front of Squall, we're so happy to be here- when Selphie asked us we couldn't refuse! We're so glad to help – aren't we squall?  
  
He looked at Rinoa in a 'are you mad?' kind of way.  
  
"Aren't we?" she hissed at him.  
  
"Ecstatic." He said glumly. Quitsis plonked herself in the empty chair while squall began getting out some lovely pink forms to match the room. She was surprised at how many people had showed up, it was only the first day. There were acres of people, and they weren't all from the garden! There were soldiers, SeeDs, Xu, Fishermen from FH! She stared at this in awe but her thought was broken by squall reading the questions on the sheet in a sad, droney voice.  
  
"Age?"  
  
"Squall, you know my age" she said. He shrugged and wrote a large 50 in the box.  
  
"SQUALL!" She screeched  
  
"Fine…" he said and replaced the 50 with a small 18."  
  
"D.O.B?" He asked still in his droney voice.  
  
"Oh come on," she said jokily "humour me! I didn't come for sleep aid!"  
  
"ok then," he said "Who to impersonate……" he searched the room with his eyes for a while and then began to talk again. "guess who I am.- So Quitsy!" he began in a high-pitched tone imitating Rinoa's voice " Do you think my Highlights are stupid and cost my boyfriend squall to much money? Bec-" He was interrupted by Rinoa pushing him off his chair. She stood with her hands on her hips and stared at him, pouting.  
  
When he resurfaced he smiled at her at wrapped his hands around her and kissed her passionately. Quitsis sighed. Why were they so happy? This is what mad her so lonely, Rinoa had squall, Selphie had Irvine, Zell had the library girl with pigtails – Sarah. And what did she have? A lonely life with no dates in it for the past 5 years! She folded her arms and began whistling, looking around – making her discomfort apparent. Rinoa and squall saw this and stopped kissing immediately They sat down looking apologetic. He asked her some more questions for what seems like hours. She was finally finished and just leaving when Selphie came up to her shyly.  
  
"Err, Quits – I know it's late- but could you help us tidy up?" she blurted. Quitsis gave a sigh of relief. Now she didn't have to go home and lie awake thinking about her lonesome life and how many dating opportunities she'd missed.  
  
"Sure." She said warmly.  
  
She spent the next few hours cleaning up confetti, organising forms and taking the hearts off the walls. All the people had left by the time she had tried to leave- so they were the only jobs left. When at last all the cleaning was done she retired back to her dorm. It had been a long, day, she couldn't wait for some sleep, and it was solate now she knew she'd manage to.  
  
When she reached her dusty old dorm she lay down and sighed. Would this really work? She didn't know. She sighed, she shouldn't keep thinking about this. She slid into bed, to tired to change and drifted off to sleep. 


	2. The longest 2 hours of my life

The longest two hours in my life  
  
"Quitsy! Wake up Quitsy!" Quitsis was jerked from her dreams by Selphie bouncing up and down on her bed, her shattering voice, drilling in to Quitsis' head. "Quitsy! Oh come on! Get uuup!!!" Selphie moaned impatiently. Quitsis ignored her and turned over in her bead, and pulled her pillow over her head. It was sooooo early! But she wasn't surprised Selphie was up, she was always up early, bright and chirpy as usual. Quitsis slowly began to crawl out of bed, groaning as she went. But Quitsis was too late. Selphie had grown impatient and was tugging at her feet, pulling her onto the floor. "geeeet," she Selphie hisses through her teeth as she pulled. "uuup.!" Quitsis suddenly fell from the tiny height of the bed and landed on the floor with a loud thump. Quitsis groaned again and pulled her duvet round herself and snuggles in to the soft, clean sheets and inhaled the lovely sweet smell of the fresh sheets. She didn't have to get up now, she had a few more minutes..Selphie couldn't make her. "Come on Quitsy!" Selphie carried on, "No time for layabouts! We had a reply from the dating agency! You're all linked up!" Quitsis immediately sat bolt upright, staring at Selphie, were her ears deceiving her? The dating agency? Really? Was this possible? She had almost given up; it had been over a week of waiting, but nothing had happened. She had been working there to help Selphie out most of the time, filing, decorating - and while she was there she had taken a sneaky look at her files, but there hadn't been anything. "Really?" she said, her surprise was whistling all the way through her voice. "Yes" said Selphie impatiently, "So hurry up and get dressed! You're not the only one who wants to find out who he is! Squall is the one who matched you up, so he's the one who knows, but he's on a flaming mission isn't he?"  
  
Quitsis frowned uncertainly. Didn't she think anything would happen either? Did they all doubt her? Maybe she was stupid to have thought anyone would ever date her anyway..But her own thoughts contradicted the fact that she had got a date, and needed to find out who it was, so she focused her attention back on that. She leapt off the floor and in to the bathroom, grabbing her clothes out of the wardrobe as she went. She locked the bathroom door and began to wash hastily. Meanwhile, Selphie was shouting commands "HURRY!" She yelled, "Shower, dry, dress, simple as that! HURRY!" Whilst shouting to Quitsis, she was running round Quitsis' room, making her bed and tiding the mess of a wardrobe Quitsis had left. She Wanted to be as quick as possible, it was so exiting! Quitsis had a date! They could all hang around in a big group of eight like she'd always wanted. "Look Quitsy! She shouted through the door "I'm gonna go fetch you and everyone else some breakfast! Wake the other guys when you're done ok? Ivry is already up! But Zell and Rinoa are still asleep! Ok, so I'm gonna go! That ok?" Selphie could hear a muffled noise that sounded like ok among the hiss of the shower water, so she closed the cupboard doors and ran out of the room, the door slamming behind her. Selphie ran down the empty corridor in a rush, down towards the cafeteria, tunning as fast as she could. She ran in a rhythmic pattern, listening to the sounds of her feet as she ran. Phut, whoosh, SLAM. Phut, whoosh, SLAM. She was sprinting her way past the infirmary in , her only little world, thinking about the exitment of it all, when she ran straight in to headmaster cid, and recoiled off his round belly on to the floor. "Hey, watch out!" Said headmaster Cid in his usual pleasant tone. He stood over her for a while and suddenly said, "Anyway, you might have bumped in to the tea lady with Zell's hotdogs - and then you would have been in trouble!" Selphie smiled at him, she had never noticed how laid back he was about rules and regulations, how unlike squall. "Sorry." she said apologetically "I was in a hurry." He smiled at her and held out his hand to help her up. She took it politely, and hauled herself up. "Yes, I've heard you've been very busy recently." He said, jingling the money in his pockets as he spoke. "Yep!" said Selphie cheerfully, "the dating agency has really taken off! We've had everyone! Seifer, Wedge and Biggs, even Laguna!" The headmaster chuckled at the thought of the president of Esthar coming to a garden dating agency, but it was very clear Laguna wasn't a normal president. "Yes, the agency has been very good publicity for the garden, Seifer is even thinking of rejoining since he came. A good fighter, Seifer. Shame about his attitude, we could have done great things with him.I don't know, we have two talented SeeD's with not enough discipline, the other with too much!" Selphie giggled, it was true. " I remember Edea when I met her," the head carried on, " Didn't need a dating agency to find that beauty, found her surrounded by hexadragons when I was searching for . Poor woman, she had just received her powers, and didn't quite have a handle on them, and had accidentally provoked them with her maelstrom! It was quite a sight to see actually. And then when I rescued her, she accidentally set my trousers on fire! It was quite troublesome to get to the river before the fire reached me, and she was so apologetic! She wouldn't stop saying sorry! That's actually how our relationship progressed, she sent me a thank you and sorry card, I sent a thank you for you thank you card, and it just grew from there.quite an odd way to meet actually" Selphie stared at him. It was such a nice way to meet, her and Ivry's story wasn't very interesting; it was mixed in with the massive Squall and Rinoa love story. No-one had ever noticed THEIR relationship blossoming throughout it all... "Oh, sorry!" he suddenly said, "I've kept you! Didn't you say you were in a hurry? And we've been standing here chatting. I'm ever so sorry. Edea will be expecting me back from my walk as well." Selphie jolted out of her thinking trance, and realised that she was supposed to be being quick. She seuddenly remembered why she was so happy. Quitsis had a date! She bolted down the hall again, and left Cid standing in the hallway, chuckling. ***** Where was she? Quitsis sat in her dorm, waiting impatiently for Selphie to arrive. She had been waiting here for fifteen minutes now, and even though it sounds like a short amount of time, it had been the longest fifteen minutes of Quitsis life, debating over who this person could be. She has been through reams of people already, and she had steadily eliminated them all, one by one, she found reasons why they would NEVER go out with her. It was quite a depressing activity really. Eventually, she really couldn't stand it any longer, and took Selphie's direction of waking the others if she was a while. She slowly got up and headed toward Rinoa's dorm. She looked at the time. It was only 7am now, and she had already been up about an hour. She gave a little knock on the door and a fully dressed, sleepy Rinoa appeared at the door. "sorry," said Quitsis " I thought Selphie hadn't woke you yet, but she obviously has, has she been to zell yet? Only I'm dying of boredom waiting for Selphie and the breakfast." "What?" Said Rinoa dozily, "Selphie hasn't got me up. Why would she? Did she get you up?" "Yeah," replied Quitsis, "there's been a date arranged for me, Selphie told me to get you lot up." "Oh? Really? Wow, that's great! Let's go and get Zell. Is he the only one not up?" "Yeah, Irvine is already up, and it's obvious you, me and Selphie are up - let's go." The two walked down the hall as Quitsis explained the rest of the details about the date, and they pondered over who it could be. When they reached Zell's dorm, Rinoa banged on the door viciously. "GET UP YOU LAZY BAG OF WIND!" She shouted, "BIG NEWS, QUISTSIS HAS A DATE!!!!" Rinoa hammered the door and then waited for Zell to appear. "So," said Quitsis, "Why were you up then? If Selphie didn't get you up? You're not like her are you, because you're usually up at about twelve, let alone six." "No." Rinoa said, whilst thumping the door, cursing Zell. " I kind of...er.don't sleep to well..without..er, squall." Quitsis stared at Rinoa, was Quitsis' opinion of her wrong? Quitsis had always considered Rinoa the loudmouthed teenager; she didn't know she had this kind of level. This made Quitsis lust for a boyfriend even more, she was so eager to find out who this person was. She wanted someone to care for, worry about when they were away, not sleep for when they weren't there. Quitsis became frustrate again at her own incompetence, and her long period of celibacy. But luckily, her attention was diverted by this when she saw Selphie running down the hall with a giant tray of breakfast, piled with muffins and eggs and coffee, all sliding about on the tray from one end to the other. She ran up to them, trying to speak between breaths. "Is.everyone... up?" she forced out, whilst Rinoa and Quitsis picked out some of the breakfast from the tray and began to chew hungrily. She placed the tray on the floor and sat down on a nearby chair, trying to catch her breath. "No." said Rinoa between gulps of a rather chewy toast. She swallowed the piece of toast in her mouth and said, "Squall isn't here, and Zell REFUSES to get up..." she kicked his door angrily, in an attempt to wake him. Eventually a distant mumble of 'come back later' could be heard form his dorm. Selphie sighed and rolled her eyes, picking up the tray of food to move to her dorm and collect Irvine. She walked in to the dorm only to find Irvine dressed, but leant against a pillow, fast asleep. She shook him awake, whispering to him gently, as Rinoa sighed at woke him up more effectively. He woke up and picked up some breakfast dozily. Quitsis' head was still filled with the thought so who this person could be, she couldn't seem to think of anybody.. Once all the breakfast had disappeared into a pile of crumbs, they all rushed down the hall to the agency's official storeroom, whilst Selphie and Irvine argued about various uninteresting subjects. Quitsis flew into the room, and rushed to the filing cabinet at the back of the room. She began flipping through the files to find hers. But as she searched, she became unsure. Her speed decreased as she thought about all the possibilities of this turning out to be a disaster. What if it was someone repulsive? What if they didn't like her? What if they didn't turn up and rejected her? She couldn't back out, maybe she shouldn't look. She eventually came to her file, slowly pulled it out of the cabinet, stared at the eager faces around. They all looked so happy. She took on e last gulp, closed her eyes and swung the file open. 


	3. Rage

Hmmmmm, sorry about the shortness of this chapter, I know it's not very gud, and I'm also sorry about the squashed text in the last chapter! No idea what happened there!  
  
Chapter 3 - Rage.  
  
Quistis didn't understand. This person was her date? Why was it him? She matched him? Really? Had Squall got it right? Or was this his idea of a joke? She couldn't date him, he just wasn't a dateable person, she had never even thought of him like that.  
  
Quistis tossed the file on top of the filing cabinet and slumped against the wall, shading her face with her hands. She didn't seem to realise that Selphie, Irvine, and Rinoa were still standing around her, still unaware of her match. They still stood though, looking as she murmured to herself, her brain trying so very hard to explain why he was her date. He just couldn't be her date, he couldn't! Why would he be her date? As far as she could see, they had nothing in common, it must have been a mix-up, there was no other way. He couldn't be her date, it just wasn't possible. She got up and started pacing around the room, like a caged animal, moving this way and that. She ran all the details through her head again. She still couldn't quite believe it, it just didn't fit. Maybe she could cancel. Would they let her cancel? Maybe she just wouldn't turn up, no-one could make her go! |Suddenly, she noticed Selphie in the corner of her eye, dancing about on the spot, humming a little tune. Her eyes swivelled to Rinoa, just staring at Quistis, wondering what on earth was going on. She spotted Quistis looking at her, and looked at her eagerly.  
  
"Well?" she asked, "come on, we need to know!" Quistis sighed and sat down.  
  
"You're not going to believe this," she began, "but my date, my real matched dup partner, who suits me perfectly, is.is.." No. She couldn't do it. She couldn't say it. They didn't have to know, she could keep it a secret, she told herself. But she knew she had to. There was no denying it. What was she supposed to do? They were standing right there. She slowly cleared her throat, and clenched her fists. She HAD to do this. "My date, my date, is..." she restarted. "is.." Selphie grinned. This was it! Quitsy had a date! They could go on quadruple dates, and exchange love tips, and they would finally all be a proper group! All eight of them! ".Raijin." A loud snigger suddenly erupted from the corner of the room, where Irvine was sitting. Selphie frowned at him, and elbowed him in the stomach. Rinoa frowned at Quistis in confusion.  
  
"Raijin?" she said unsurely, "Are you sure??" Quistis nodded, and slowly said,  
  
"Look at the file; it's all there, in plain old black and white." Rinoa picked up the file and sat down on a chair, flicking through the pages of results, whilst Irvine continued laughing. He was now banging his fist on the top of a desk, despite Selphie's best efforts to silence him. She gave up and walked over to Quistis and put her arm around her comfortingly. Quistis sighed again. She turned to Selphie and gradually said,  
  
" I don't understand. why? Why Raijin?"  
  
"What's to understand!?" whooped Selphie. "It's Raijin! This is great! You already know him, and he's, fun, and, he's, he's....." She trailed away as Quistis was staring at her in disbelief.  
  
"Fun," Quistis said quietly, "fun. You think that Raijin will be FUN for crying out loud! Get a grip Selphie!" she yelled, her face was becoming scarlet, her eyes were raging. "He's a complete loser! He's tried to kill us more than once! And it's just because Seifer told him to! His weapon is a freaking stick Selhie! I'm not even sure I'll be able to sit through five minutes of the date and his stupid "ya's" without punching him, let alone a whole date! FUN!? ARE YOU INSANE!?" Irvine suddenly fell off his chair, howling with laughter. He stumbled out a few words, as he attempted to to get up from the floor.  
  
"Ra..Raijin..is..is, Quistis' DATE!" He cried out with laughter, and fell to the floor again, rolling about hysterically. Quistis' stopped shouting, and turned to Irvine.  
  
"And you, you moron!" She screamed. "You find this FUNNY? You and your sad little gun, and you stupid long hair, are laughing at me? I have no idea why all the girls like you! You're a freak! You have a personality like warthog! And all you cute little Selphie names are pathetic! I'd be surprised if a toilet brush wanted to date you, never mind Selphie! The only reason she dates is you is bacuse she like EVERYTHING!!!" Then Quistis turned away, and stormed out of the room.  
  
"What was wrong with her?" asked Rinoa, looking up from the file.  
  
"I don't know! I thought it was great!" Sobbed Selphie, and then she burst into tears. 


	4. Dilemma

SO sorry about the lateness of this chapter, I don't really have any reasoning, I just have a busy life, I'm also forgetful! : ) Hopefully, I will have it updated more from now on! Oh, and I know it's not too long. I could have merged this chapter and the next one, but I thought you might want it as soon as possible! : D  
  
Chapter 4 - Dilemma  
  
Quitsis sat on the large swivel chair at the front of the classroom, waiting for the class to finish writing their self-assessments for the year. The official garden Year was almost over now, which meant the only activity in the garden would be the few SeeDs left now, and the dating agency. She slowly turned around in her chair, sighing heavily. The date was tonight. She still hadn't cancelled, she wasn't even sure if she would. She was desperate. But was she that desperate? Raijin. Maybe he wouldn't be so bad, maybe he'd changed. She hadn't seen him for a long time.It was possible, she thought. Anyway, he wasn't that bad anyway, she was just shocked.  
  
But, deep down, she knew she was lying to herself. She knew, she knew that she hated Raijin and everything about him. She didn't want to date him. She laughed quietly to herself. Who would, really? She was most bothered about (if she did go on the date) whether she'd be able to stand five minutes on his "ya's" without punching him. She shook her head, stop thinking about it, she thought. She hated the stress of dating. This is why she had kept away from it for all these years. The does he like me, do I look okay? The why hasn't he called me? Do I laugh at his jokes? Why has he dumped me? I am being the person he wants me to be?  
  
She sat in her chair considering this, when she felt a small tap on her shoulder.  
  
"Err, Professor Trepee?" whispered a small voice in her ear.  
  
She turned and looked at Carlos. He was a short, scruffy student of hers. She smiled at him. He was so eager, so sweet.  
  
"What is it, Carlos?" She inquired.  
  
He gingerly pointed to the class. The self-assessments were finished, all lying on a neat pile on her desk. The class were running amuck, screaming, trading cards, some were even battling. She was shocked. How long had they been finished? They were normally quite well behaved. She couldn't believe thoughts of Raijin were interrupting her work.  
  
"Alright, alright!" She yelled, "Break it up!"  
  
The class slid back into their seats, still mumbling to each other. Once they were silenced she began talking again.  
  
"Well, since you've finished, you can have an early break," She told them.  
  
They cheered, and ran out of the classroom. Several chairs were knocked over, but the din was so loud she couldn't be bother to call them back. It was too much hassle, especially how she was feeling now. She slowly rose from her chair and put the papers into a drawer. Then she began to pick up the chairs, still evaluating her situation with Raijin. Just as she had really began to think again, Irvine appeared in the room. His gun was slung over his shoulder as usual, and his hat obscuring his face. He was staring at the floor. He almost looked nervous, she thought. But she immediately dismissed this, Irvine was NEVER nervous! She stopped in her tracks and sat on the edge of one of the desk, surveying him as he shuffled toward her.  
  
"Err sorry about the whole laughing thing," He began timidly, "I just didn't really know how to react you know?"  
  
He took of his hat and began fiddling with the rim. Quitsis also noticed his face was a deep shade of crimson.  
  
"It's ok," She said, "I was just in shock, and you didn't exactly help."  
  
Irvine nodded sympathetically, still staring at the floor.  
  
"I've never seen you like before; I always thought you were the sensible one, chilled and calm." He said,  
  
"So I'm not allowed to be angry??" She snapped defensively.  
  
"No, no, NO," He quickly cut in, "I just was surprised, I didn't know you had it in you,"  
  
"Well, I do" She replied "and you know to be careful what you day next time."  
  
"I know," He said, "And I'm sorry again. Am I forgiven?"  
  
She nodded happily, and plucked his chin up.  
  
"From my experience" She began, "FH floor tiles are not very exiting!"  
  
He laughed. The atmosphere had cleared, and he was relieved. Nobody in their gang had seen her since the incident. Selphie hadn't stopped crying, and he had been riddled with guilt.  
  
"So," She said, changing the subject hastily, "I guess I have a date to prepare for!" 


End file.
